At the beginning of February 2023, the Hôtel Drouot, Paris, put up for sale a painting by the Flemish painter Brueghel the Younger following its rediscovery last October. Estimated at between €600,000 and €800,000, it will be offered at auction on 28 March.

The work dates from 1615-1917 and represents a village scene, painted on a large canvas (111 x 183 cm), larger than the artist’s usual paintings. Entitled The Village Lawyer, or The Tithes Collector, it was probably influenced by the French painter Nicolas Baullery.

The painting was found during an inventory of a family’s property in France, where it had been kept for over a hundred years. It was authenticated in Paris in November and sent to Germany in December by Drouot to the Brueghel specialist Klaus Ertz, who confirmed the first analysis.